The Living Labyrinth
by Viridaja Tirvani
Summary: Jareth begins to fall for one of two girls who accidentally wish themselves away, and starts to bend the rules... But the Labyrinth has a mind of its own, and it is NOT amused...
1. Careful What You Wish For

_Disclaimer:_

**Queen of the Underground: "We do not own the Labyrinth or anything that comes with    the movie. Don't worry, I'm just borrowing Jareth for a while…a long while, but I'll put him back when I'm done, that is…if he wants to go."  **

**Viridaja: "By the way, since we're lazy, were only putting the disclaimer on this page, so if ya wanna see it, you can come back here."**

_Authors Note:_

**Viri: "This story is a collaboration between myself, and the Queen **Shameless plug** Read her stories read her stories **end shameless plug**,"**

**The Queen: "And by the way, our characters, Jen and Stina, belong to us.**

**Viri: "And Kirel belongs to me, thank you very much." **

**Both: "Enjoy!"**

***********************

            As the last credits to "Labyrinth" scrolled up yet again, two teenage girls sighed in unison, while a storm raged outside unheeded. One pressed the eject button as the other sighed again. 

             "There's nothing quite like a man in tights…" The first girl whirled around, eyes wide. 

             "Jen, Jareth is _MINE." She said firmly and dangerously. Jen grimaced._

             "Yes, Stina. Sorry, Stina." She said quickly. " I was just stating my position on things. You've got a "thing" for older guys; I've got a "thing" for guys in tight pants. It comes from loving Fantasy books and movies. In this case our "things" for guys have overlapped. I'm not nearly as obsessed as you anyway…" Both girls grinned. Stina took her favorite DVD out of her new basement DVD player with practiced ease and care. 

             "It's a wonder you haven't worn that out, or lasered a hole in it, or whatever happens to an over used DVD." Jen said. Stina smiled broadly. 

             "That's why I don't have it on tape." They laughed. 

             "It'd be really cool if it was all real." Jen said "The labyrinth, the castle-"

             "Jareth…" Stina said dreamily. _'One track mind' Jen thought. _

             "I _wish…" Stina sighed again. _

             "Yeah. I wish…" Jen agreed.

            _ "I wish the goblins would come and take us__ away, **right now!" the girls said in unison.**_

            Suddenly there was a huge crash of thunder and lightening, and both girls jumped as the temperature in the basement room dropped a few degrees. There was an eldritch crackling in the air. Jen shivered. Stina glanced around wildly. They're eyes locked and widened, as they realized just what it was they had just said.

             "You… You don't think…." Jen said, her voice with a timorous tinge to it. She realized she was whispering. From the downstairs bathroom there was a wet sounding THUMP! 

             "Sounded like a pretty big bird just crashed into the window." Stina said. Everything got quiet for half a minute. Then, the basement door burst open with a swirl of cold wind and damp glitter. There, outlined by the lightening, was Jareth, King of the Goblins! Stina and Jens jaws dropped like anvils off a skyscraper. His Majesty was rubbing his forehead and cursing under his breath. 

             "Damn owl…can't see damn windows in the damn rain…" He muttered darkly. Jen snickered into her hand, as Stina continued to stare in rapt adoration. He shot Jen a black look, then pulled himself up to his full height. His blond hair brushed the low ceiling. His chiseled features and mismatched eyes were accented by the bright flashes outside. He cast a velvet cloak covered with sliver motes back from his shoulders, revealing the triangular pendent on his pale chest. The pewter amulet was framed by the crème colored shirt he was wearing open at the top, over tight leather pants. Both girls let out an "EEP!"

             "Good evening, Jennifer, Christina. I am Jareth, King of the Goblins. And you…" He kissed each of their hands in turn. "You are now my slaves…"

                                                                        ***

                                                                    Jen

             "Sounds good to me!" Stina said, instantly giving in to the many charms of the blond monarch. My inner Feminist battled strenuously with my inner Romantic. The Feminist won, because the Romantic is a soppy little wuss. My mouth curved from a brainless-groupie grin to an outraged downward crescent. 

             "What?!?" 

            The King smiled. No, make that smirked. 

             "My dear, you wished yourselves away, what's said is said. You belong to me." He said smoothly. With an accent. A nice one too. Woo… Nevertheless, outraged, I responded with one of the traditional fantasy heroine retorts. 

             "I belong to no one!" I cried. He laughed softly, his glittering midnight blue cloak rustling softly.

             "I am afraid that you are quite wrong. Underground, these statements are quite binding. If you were not aware, you should not have said the right words in the first place"

             "That's not fair!" I exclaimed, and instantly regretted it. Jareth simply laughed at me. I was speechless. Stina stepped in.

             "What exactly is it that we would be doing as your… slaves?" She smiled as Jareth touched her cheek with his leather-clad fingers.

             "You will work in the kitchens until such time as you grow accustomed to the Underground. Then you will be given jobs cleaning my castle, or maintaining the Labyrinth. As you will not age beyond maturity in my kingdom, you will be doing these jobs for quite a long time." He smirked again. Stina got a slightly hurt and miffed expression on her face.

             "But I thought-!" She said, before I cut her off.

             "The Labyrinth! I…I _demand we be able to run the Labyrinth for our freedom! That's part of the rules, isn't it?" _

            The King of the Goblins laughed once more, saying "You are far too presumptuous. Dear Lady, the only rules in the Labyrinth are those that I make myself. Nevertheless, I suppose it might be interesting to watch you flounder about in my maze for hours. But you had best mind that I am a busy Fae." He made a fast pattern in the air with his long fingers and a crystal ball appeared from nowhere to rest in his black gloved hands. 

             "Look here" he ordered. Suddenly, the clear globe expanded in the fashion of Glinda the good witch. My eyes lost focus for a second. Suddenly we were standing on a barren hill overlooking a huge maze, at the center of which was a grand castle. Stina and I blanched. We looked at each other with fear and incredulity. What had we gotten ourselves into? Jareth was behind us. He walked to Stina and whispered "This isn't necessary, you know." She swallowed hard and closed her eyes. Then he stepped a little too close for rational thought to remain unaffected. 

             "Simply surrender now and serve me. Do as I say…" He cajoled. It took more effort than I could have imagined to shake my head. 

             "Very well." He said, amused, I suppose, at our inner struggles. "You've got 13 hours to run through my Labyrinth, or you become my slaves for eternity. And as an added bonus, if you make it to my castle, you get one wish each." He grinned.

             "Have fun." Jareth, King of the Goblins, dissolved into a swirl of glitter and lingering laughter…

***


	2. The Adventure Begins, or "Come *On* Feet...

CHAPTER 2

Stina

"This isn't necessary, you know." He leaned close and whispered in my ear. I could feel his warm breath on my neck and smell his deep musky scent with every breath I took. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. _'It wouldn't be so bad' I thought __'we'd live right outside his castle, see him everyday... Wait a minute! Christina! Snap out of it! You don't want to be a slave for the rest of your life, what are you thinking!' I looked up and the next thing I knew my beloved Goblin King had disappeared, leaving behind a swirl of glitter and that evil laugh that I had come to love. I looked up at Jen,  _

"Well, let's go, if I recall correctly, it's further than we think, and time is short." 

"Isn't this the part where you say 'Come on feet!'?"

"Alright, come on feet!." Just then I fell over, my face landing barely an inch away from a mud puddle. "Ow!" I said as I looked at my hands to make sure I hadn't acquired any cuts. Jen turned around after hearing me 'THUD' on the ground. 

"What are you doing?" she asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"My feet…won't…come.' I said as I struggled to get up and walk towards Jen. We slowly made our way towards the entrance of the Labyrinth, until my feet decided to work again and I practically went running down the rest of the hill and had to catch myself before I went flying again. As usual Hoggle was spraying down fairies. 

"Oh, good, Hoggle! We can bribe him with some of my jewelry." Jen had a penchant for jewelry, and was currently wearing earrings, a necklace, and a ring on almost every finger.

"Um, excuse me." Jen called out. 

"He's not gonna hear you." I told her. "You need to be louder, like this. YO HIGGLE!" The little dwarf twirled around

"Ugh ooh! It's Hoggle! And who are you?" Jen slapped my arm. 

"Hey, be nice! Why did you do that?" she asked me. 

"Because…it's fun. And because he doesn't like Jareth." I answered. I squinted my eyes and glared at the tiny dwarf that had gone back to spraying his fairies. 

"Ugh! There you go again. Is that all you ever think about?" 

"Yeah pretty much, or just David Bowie in general since Jareth is the spitting image of him. Or Bowie's character in "The Man Who Fell to Earth", he looked really-" 

"Will you stop babbling and come on? We need to get through this Labyrinth." We walked over to Hoggle. 

"Um, excuse me, I'm Jen and this is my friend Stina. Do you know where the entrance to the Labyrinth is? We need to get to the center and we only have 13 hours to do so. And she-" Jen pointed to me "is being of absolutely no help right now because she is off in Jareth Wonderland." 

"No I'm not!" I retorted 

"As a matter of fact I do." Hoggle interjected, "You get in there-" he pointed as two large doors opened up.  

"Thank you!" Jen said. We entered the Labyrinth and the doors shut behind us. We looked to the left then the right seeing nothing but barren paths both ways. "Which way do you think we should go?" Jen asked me. 

"Um, right." 

"But didn't Sarah go right?" 

"Ya but I wanna see if the little worm is sitting out there again. He's so cute."

"But-" 

"Pleeeeease." I begged her. 

"Fine. Go." 

"Thank You!" _'Ha-ha' I thought to myself. __'She's so passive, I love it' "We should walk with our hands pressing against the wall so that way if there is an opening we won't miss it. Just don't press it to hard or you'll fall." I said. _

"Alright, that's a good idea." We started off and before long I heard an OOF! come from Jen. I whirled around to find just her legs sticking out of the wall. I rolled my eyes

"I said you were gonna fall if you leaned to hard." 

"I know but I wasn't expecting it. Help me up." I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. 

"Alright, don't go anywhere yet. I'll be right back." I ran down the path a little more, careful to avoid tripping over any logs or getting slapped in the face by random branches. After about 25 or so feet I heard a little voice call out. 

"'Allo." it said. I turned and looked down. 

"Hello." I said "How are you?" 

"I'm doing just fine. What brings you here?" 

"Oh, I need to get to the castle in the center of this Labyrinth." 

"Sorry, can't help you there. Come inside, have a nice cup of tea." 

"No thanks." I said. I scooped up the little blue worm and began walking back to Jen. 

"Alright let's go." I said to her 

"What do you have in your hands?" she asked me. 

"Nothing." I said, putting my hands behind my back. 

"Christina, go put him back." she ordered. 

"But he's so cute! Look," I brought the little worm out in front of me to show Jen. 

"'Allo!" he said to her. 

"Oh, he is really cute...NO! Go put him back, he has a wife at home, you can't just take him." I sighed, 

"Oh, alright." I began walking back to put him down. "That's my friend Jen." I told the little fellow, "She's not very nice sometimes." 

"I heard that!" she yelled to me. I turned and smiled and waved at her. I squatted down and placed the worm back where I had found him.

"There you go. Tell the missus I said hi." 

"Sure. Nice to meet you." I smiled, 

"Nice to meet you too." I said as I headed back towards Jen. She looked at me and shook her head, 

"Can we go now?"

***

Jen

"Can we go now?" I asked in exasperation. The Labyrinth _was cool (and as a die-hard fantasy fan, I found it extermely interesting), and the worm certainly __was very adorable, but we ****__were in a race to save ourselves from eternal slavery here, seriously… _

"Oh, fine," Stina grumbled. We walked in silence for a few minutes. Then I got an idea.

"I've got an idea," I said. "I'm good at solving mazes usually, but I'm stumped here. I think the reason is that I can't see it from the top, like a maze on paper."

"Ok, Jen. It's too bad we don't have a plane with us or that would be a great idea…" Stina said. I shook my head.

"The walls are relatively low here, but they're really thick. If we got on top of them, we could walk on them like a sidewalk up to the castle!" Stina looked skeptical. 

"We could try, I guess. It seems kinda like cheating though…" She said.

I stared at her.

"Cheating? You mean, like, you think it wouldn't be _fair to do that?" I asked pointedly_

"Oh. Right." She said, remembering the Labyrinth views on Fairness, or lack there-of.

"Right." I agreed, "Now give me a boost up." She gave me a blank look. 

"Like this:" I said, locking my fingers together and pantomiming what I wanted her to do. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"What? The kids on my block used to do it all the time when we wanted to climb trees." I explained.

"And it _worked?" Stina asked incredulously. _

"Usually. I got stuck up a tree a couple of times, but on the whole, it worked quite well." She shrugged, sighed, and made a step out of her fingers. We moved closer to the nearest 6 1/2 foot stone wall. I stepped up and tried to scramble onto the top of the wall. Stina grunted.

"Sorry!" I called. "I'm heavier than I look." 

"You're telling me!" Finally, with a lot of pulling on my part, and pushing on Stina's, I got on top of the wall. The many rings I was wearing on each hand did nothing to help my hands gain purchace. With one leg on either side, I could see the castle in the distance. We were still a long way away from it. Fortunately, we still had a lot of time left. _'I hope', I thought. Then I turned back to Stina and tried to pull her up the stone wall. This was not easy, as my arms are not what you would call very strong. Even so, between the two of us, we managed it. The two of us sat on the top of the wall, catching our breath. Then we got up and began walking. Stina was in front, and she didn't seem to need extra balance, but I did. I put my arms out to either side as we walked the shortest path to the castle on the 1 foot wide wall. _

We had been walking for a good half hour, and making a pretty quick job of it, when suddenly, the section of wall we were on began to move. We shakily kept our balance till it stopped again. Now the wall had rotated to block one passage that had previously been open, and do exactly the opposite to another. I grinned at Stina. 

 "That would have caused a lot of trouble if we had been down there." I pointed out. As we crossed onto another wall segment, I turned my face to the castle. "Ha, Jareth. Thought you had us there? Well, we're too _smart for ya." I grinned smugly._

The wall disappeared.

Stina landed on her feet, but I was not that lucky. I am never that lucky. I landed quite hard on my… pride. 

 "Are you ok?" Stina asked as she helped me up.

 "Yes. I'm just very, _very annoyed. That was __so not fair." I stuck my tongue out in the general direction of the castle. _

The walls all shot up about two feet. My eyes narrowed.

"That wasn't even unfair. That was just _spiteful." Stina shrugged._

"That's just the way Jareth is. Come on." She said_. 'Oh, yeah, defend him… Sheesh, she's fallen hopelessly hard for that guy.' I dusted off my bottom and followed her. _

"Stina, can you try to remember that your _wonderful Jareth is the one who's going to make us into slaves? Could you just __attempt to remember that?"_

She ignored me.

***

Soon, Stina had an idea of her own. She started looking around on the ground. "Find me a loose rock or something." She said. I looked around and found a whole bunch of them. I gave her one, and put the rest in my pockets. _'Never know when they might come in handy' I thought. Stina took her rock and scratched an arrow onto one of the square floor stones. Then she moved behind a stone outcropping and motioned for me to do the same. __'What is she doing?' I asked myself. I got my answer a few seconds later when a small creature pushed the stone up and began an angry tirade that I could only understand a little bit of. __'Something about an aardvark.__ And my mother. And- was that in Spanish?' Stina darted forward and grabbed the tiny goblin before it could duck back under the stone._

"You weren't going to change that around, were you?" She asked, giving it a little squeeze. 

"Urk! I-ah donaknow wha you arrr fraggina talking abou!" She narrowed her eyes and gave it a little shake. "If you change around my arrows its going to go very badly for you."

 "Aiyiyi!" It cried pitifully. I decided to step in.

"She can be very picky about things like that. I don't want to hurt anyone, but if she finds you reversing her tiles, she's going to be very angry." I said sympathetically, stepping into the role of "Good Cop". "I'd suggest that you leave her arrows alone for the next 11 hours at least."

"Si, si, yeah, gotcha!" It agreed quickly.

"You can let it go Stina, it won't be moving any tiles today, will you?" It shook its little head emphatically.  Stina let it down and it ran off.

"And tell your friends!" She called harshly after it. Then we looked at each other and laughed.

"Well that takes care of that problem." Stina said.

***

"But not this problem, lassies!" a Scottish accented voice came from behind us. 

"What problem, exactly?" Stina asked, as we turned around. Behind us were two doors, guarded by two two-headed dogs. They cleared their throats in unison, getting ready to present a speech that they had obviously delivered many times.

"Well the only way out of here is to try one of these doors!" Said the guard on the top right. Then the top left guard took over.

"One of them leads to the castle at the center of the labyrinth, and the other one leads to..." Here Right came in again

_"Babababum…"         _

"Certain death!" the Left guard cried. At this, all four guards chimed in with an impressed sounding.

"Oooooo!" Stina cracked up. I stared at them. 

"You have _got to be kidding me." I said, exasperatedly. "The two doors riddle is __so overused. Gee, lemme guess: One of you always lies, and one always tells the truth."_

The guards looked slightly abashed at not being able to continue the rest of their speech. "Well, yes." Right Top said.

"Ah-ha! You must be the one who tells the truth!" I said, pointing to the guard who had just spoken. The guards exchanged a glance. The Right guards second head, Right Bottom piped up

"No, we only do that for talking about the doors. Otherwise we both tell the truth." It explained. I nodded perceptively.

"I see. But I imagine you'd have lots of trouble deciding who always gets to tell the truth." I said

"Ach no, lass," said Right Top. I was getting the impression that he was the talkative one… "We alternate everyday! Today_ I get to tell the truth, and __tomorrow-" _

The little dog stopped and gasped, eyes wide, and clapped two small paws over his mouth. The Left guard's heads both made "Shush"-ing  noises, while the bottom half of the first guard just shook his head and moaned in disappointment. 

I grinned. Turning to Right Top, who by now was looking very embarrassed, I asked,

"Which door leads to the castle?" 

"This one." He said, dejectedly. Something in his voice made me stop. He sounded very depressed.

"Stina? Can you solve the riddle properly please?" I asked. All four dogs perked up visibly. She shrugged and turned to Left Top.

"If I asked him if this door," She pointed to the door on the left "was the way to the castle, what would he say?" 

"He would say: Yes!" Said Left Top cheerfully. All four dog heads looked quite happy and relieved, I supposed because this way Jareth couldn't punish them. I gestured to the door on the right.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"Yes, let's!" She agreed. We stepped through the door, and promptly fell through a hole that should not have been there.

_'Oh, nothings ever FAIR!'__ I thought as I fell._

***


	3. Getting Jareth's Attention, or "Hopscotc...

**Viri: Ok, people, now for some diversity, in this chapter we got some Jareth, just so you know, Jareth's parts always come after whatever he's talking about, so nothings happening twice, its just his POV. In this chapter, we also have some new places, and your first glimpse of the living labyrinth. Have fun! **

***

_Something was watching. As two girls and a King appeared on the hill, it watched. It observed their trek through the outer twists and turns of the near impossible maze. It saw them solve every puzzle thrown at them.  It noticed their strategies, and the labyrinth shifted to accommodate. Deep in the darkness in the center of the labyrinth, under the magnificent castle, something thought__. Something felt__. _

_The Labyrinth always__ kept watch…_

***

Jareth

I transported myself back to my throne room and plopped myself down in my throne, throwing one leg over the arm of the throne, the other one bent close to my chest. I changed out of my clothes to put on my more casual, and comfortable ones: Gray tights, with a poets blouse, a leather vest, my boots, and of course, my infamous pendant. '_Damn it_,' I thought, '_Why__ do I always have to be like that. Two beautiful young girls wish themselves away to my kingdom, a chance for me to finally forget about Sarah, and I blow it. And neither of them will ever like me if all I appear to be is the nasty, cold-hearted Goblin King. Why can't I ever let anybody see the real me? I don't even give them a chance to get to know me, but I can't help it; Not after how I've been hurt in the past. Maybe that is all I really am now. A cold icy Goblin King.'_

I looked around the room at my goblins, the other creatures that ever saw the real me, and that always seemed to sense what I was feeling. Even if they could be a little dense at times. Most of them were eating or drinking but a few were huddled together playing, what appeared to be, a very serious game of cards. Then there were some that had come to seat around me, on the floor and on the arms of my throne, just to rest for awhile. 

"Well, let's see how far my lovely ladies have gotten." I said as I materialized a crystal and gazed into it. As they came into focus I realized that they were walking on top of the walls. Outraged, I sprang out of my throne, 

"They can't do that! That's against the rules! I forbid it. I bet that Jennifer thought of it, she doesn't seem to like me very much. Well, let's see how they handle this!' I twirled the crystal around my fingers which caused the wall they were on to shift positions. I quickly glanced back into the crystal, they were both a little shaky but neither of them lost their balance. I made it so I was able to hear what they were saying   
  


"That would have caused a lot of trouble for us if we had been down there. Ha, Jareth. Thought you had us there? Well, we're too smart for ya." Jennifer grinned smugly   
  


_'She definitely doesn't like me, and nobody__ is to smart for me, no matter how many times they tell themselves that. __ Alright Jennifer, if you are to smart for me then how are you going to deal with this__?' I waved my hand over the crystal again and made the wall disappear from underneath their feet. I looked at the crystal and saw that Christina had landed on her feet, Jennifer, however, landed on her backside.  _

"Look at that: Jennifer fell, and I've annoyed her." I laughed, my goblins just stared at me, dumbfounded. "Well...laugh!"

***

Jen

Apparently no one cared whether it was fair or not. I tried to grab the side of the tunnel, and grasped a pair of hands. Stina kept falling, until she was out of sight down the pit. Then a bunch of other hands grabbed me. This was not what I wanted.

"Hey! What're you doing. Get your hands off of- Hey, buster, HANDS OFF! This is a severe violation of my personal space!" I yelled and flailed my legs about.

"We're trying to help you!" A cluster of hands said. "We're helpi-"

"Yeah, yeah, helping hands I know. Up, bring me up!" The hands sounded disappointed

"Up? She chose up… But the other one chose down!" They said as they moved me back up to the top of the tunnel.

_'Down?!__ Why did she choose down?' I asked myself__. 'Because down is where Jareth__ was in the movie, that's__ why!' I answered myself quickly. The hands built up speed and hurled me out of the pit before I could change my decision to "Down."_

"Stina?!" I called down the deep hole. There was no answer, other than the irritating laughter of the "Helping" hands. I stepped back towards the hole, trying to find my friend, but found that the top of the hole was sealed. It was like standing on strong glass. I jumped up and down a few times, trying to break the glass, but nothing happened. Then it vanished completely, blending in with the ground. I looked up and realized that the door was gone as well.

"Well, this is great. Stina's in the oubliette, and she knows how to get out, but_ I'm in the middle of the labyrinth with no idea what I'm doing. This is just peachy…" I said, aiming a futile kick at a near by tree._

I was in the middle of a dark forest, saturated with mist that practically begged to be called ominous. The now-gray sky overhead could only be seen in patches through the thick foliage of the multitude of huge gnarled trees. The air was slightly cooler in this part of the labyrinth, and I zipped my navy blue sweater a little higher over my dark green tank-top. I was standing on an almost imperceptible path, leading off into the dense woods. _'Okay, Jen. Time to boldly go where you'd really rather not.' I thought wryly and stepped onto the path. Suddenly, with a grinding noise, stepping stones rose out of the ground to about an inch off the ground. They looked very much like the ones my mom used to make paths through her vegetable gardens. Just as suddenly, the surrounding forest became a lot denser and more forbidding. I put one foot one the first stone, and suddenly, it plummeted out from under me. _

With a cry, I wind milled my arms and ended up sitting down hard on the spot I had been standing a moment ago. The stone and the path in a 6 inch radius around it had disappeared; leaving a gaping abyss that I didn't think was inhabited by _anything helpful. My heart pounding from this near escape, I peered cautiously over the edge and whistled. There was no bottom to be seen. _

"Okay. Ooookay…" I said to myself, trying to regain my composure "Okay. Oh, who am I kidding. Not okay, NOT OK!" I shook my head violently. _'Get a hold of yourself, Jennifer Anne.' I reprimanded myself. Taking a deep breath, I took another look at the path. A little ways down, a leaf fell on to one of the other stones, which promptly also plummeted.  I grimaced. This was not gonna be fun. I put my hands in my pockets and tried to think, and found that there were things in my pockets. __'Rocks!' I remembered. Suddenly I had another one of my brilliant ideas. I took one of the rocks from my pocket and threw it at the second stepping stone on the path. It hit the stone, bounced a few inches, then stopped. The stone stayed put this time!_

Before I had a chance to think twice about it, I held my breath, and took a running jump onto the second stepping stone. Luck was, apparently, with me: the stepping stone stayed solid, even with my weight on it. I picked up the rock again and tossed it onto the next stone, which dropped much like the first. The next stone held though. I made my way across the stones slowly, dropping rocks on every one to make sure it held before stepping onto it.  

There were a couple of close calls when I began to assume there was a pattern in the stones. Right when I almost assumed the pattern was 'every other stone drops', the pattern changed to 'two stones in a row stay put _and then_ one drops, **_just to annoy Jen_**'. I finally came to what seemed to be the end. This would have been good except for the five foot gap between the last stepping stone and another walkway. There were no handy little vines or branches to help me across. I grimaced. 

"Hope this works." I said aloud. I backed up to the very edge of the stone I was on, took as much of a running start as I could, and threw myself at the other side.  

I made it, almost. My feet hit the walkway, but the rest of my body was slightly behind. I tried to keep my balance, waving my arms around wildly (and it occurred to me I had been doing an awful lot of that lately,) but in the end, I knew gravity would get the best of me (I hate gravity. The stupid bugger always wins!). I would have fallen to what could very possibly be my death, if at that moment, a young man hadn't appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my hands.

***

Stina

We fell through a hole but suddenly stopped when we were grabbed by what I was guessing were the Helping Hands.

"Well, we picked the right door, we just forgot one tiny detail, the Oubliette...Jen? Jen?" I looked up but Jen was not there and the hole had been sealed. Oh just great I thought as I looked at all the hands around me. "Boy," I said out loud, trying to get the hands to listen to me "I could really use some help." 

"What do you mean? We are helping. We're helping hands." _'Helping me? More like feeling me up.' _

"Well, I'd like to go down, if that's not too much trouble for you." '_At least that way I'll know where I'm going' I thought. __'I just wish I knew where Jen is  and if she is ok'. I began to move again as I heard the voices calling out _

"She chose down?!" I landed with a thump on the floor of the oubliette. Then someone lit a candle, and I looked around to see who it was. '_Oh, it's my little friend' I thought as I saw who it was. _

"Hogwart-" 

"Hoggle" 

"Yes, you weren't planning on showing me the way out of the Labyrinth were you?" 

"Actually, I _do know a shortcut out of the entire Labyrinth, get you out of here in no time." _

"Oh, that's very nice, to bad I'm not leaving." 

"But you have to follow me. I'm the only one that knows the way out of this oubliette." 

"Actually," I said, walking over to a pile of blankets and clothes, "you're not." I pushed aside the blankets and picked up the wooden plank that lay underneath them. I placed it against the wall and opened it as a door, from right to left. Suddenly there was an opening outside where there had once been just wall. I smiled and turned to Hoggle,

"You coming?" 

"H-How did you know about that?" He asked slightly annoyed. 

"I may be from the dull, boring Aboveground, but I'm not stupid." I replied. We began walking though a cave where giant stone faces were warning us to go back. Hoggle looked at me with a slightly worried expression on his face. 

"Uh, these warnings don't sound to good. Maybe we should leave the Labyrinth." I rolled my eyes. 

"Huh, dear Hoggy, You've lived here all your life. You should know by now that they are just false alarms. That means we are going the right way." 

"No you're not." A deep voice bellowed from behind us. I turned and was face to face with one of the false alarms. 

"What'd you say?" I asked it, with a hint of attitude in my voice. 

"I said you're going the wrong way." 

"As a matter of fact, I know I'm not going the wrong way, so who asked your opinion anyway?" 

"Uh, well, um, I'm uh, just doing my job." 

"Well could you do it silently?" I asked, then turned to face the front again, "All of you." I looked down at Hoggle, "Ready?" I asked him. He just stared at me, mouth open, kind of resembling a fish. "What?" I innocently asked him. Suddenly we heard a clinking noise on the ground and stepped aside, only to see one of Jareth's magic crystals rolling by. We turned the corner, and, as we expected, Jareth was there waiting for us.

"Huh!" Hoggle gasped, "Y-Your majesty. How v-very nice to see you again." 

"Oh, Hogbrain-" 

"Actually, he doesn't like being called Hogwart even more." I interjected. 

"It's Hoggle." Hoggle said, apparently frustrated with us by now. Jareth smiled at me and I just smirked at Hoggle. Jareth continued 

"Whatever is the matter?" 

"Nothing." Hoggle answered. I turned and stared at Hoggle, eyes wide and hands open at my sides,  

"Nothing? Nothing?! Nothing tra la la?" Hoggle looked at me as though he was trying to speak but nothing came out. Jareth looked at me, slightly taken aback, but then continued on.

"And you, Christina, how are you enjoying my Labyrinth?" We looked right into each others eyes as he asked me the question and I almost lost my composure as a flood of feelings washed over me. I loved the man standing before me more then life itself and, as he stood there, my feelings and desire to hold him grew ever stronger. 

"Y-Y-Your Labyrinth is really hard so far." Come on Christina, don't let your guard down now, Jen isn't here to save you this time. I took a deep breath and moved closer to Jareth. I ran a finger down his arm, "especially now since I've gotten separated from Jen back in the Oubliette. That was a very cruel trick." I walked behind him keeping my voice low and trying to sound helpless. Hoggle just looked at me and couldn't believe what I was doing. I looked in Jareth's face; he closed his eyes and muttered under his breath to himself, barely audible 'No, Jareth, she's trying to seduce you. She can't do this to you now. Oh, it's not fair.' I stood right in front of him and put my arms around his neck. He opened his eyes and seemed to stare right into my soul. I was only deterred a moment however, before I took a breath and continued, 

"You say that so often I wonder what your basis for comparison is." He smiled at me and I almost melted into a puddle of Stina goo. 

"You've really got to stop doing that." He told me. 

"Sorry," I said looking down, "I'll try." I looked up at him again and smiled. Then, just like that he was gone from under my arms, leaving behind only a trail of glitter. I leaned back against the wall and slid to the floor, practically hyperventilating. I couldn't believe what I just did, and without passing out on top of it. I tried to take a deep breath and realized my clothes now smelled of him. I smiled and leaned my head back. 

"Things are going great. For once in my life, things are going my way." 

  
* * *

Jareth

"They've fallen into the oubliette. Why have they not given up yet? What is this? Jennifer chose up, that's not what she's supposed to do. I don't know what I'm going to do with her." I made my crystal vanish and looked up at the goblins sitting around me. "I'm going to go see how Christina is doing," I smirked to myself, "Jennifer should be occupied for a while, wandering about the enchanted forest. I just hope she watches her step." 

I transformed into owl form and soared above the Labyrinth, I made a quick swoop over the forest to see what Jennifer was up to then headed over to the false alarms to pay Christina and Hoggle a visit. I landed in the stone corridor a few seconds before they were about to reach it. I sent one of my crystals rolling down the hall as a warning that I would be waiting for them. They soon rounded the corner, and, nonetheless, Hoggle was shocked to find me waiting for him. 

"Huh! Y-Your majesty, how v-very nice to see you again." I could tell he was sucking up, however I was actually surprised, I figured he would have learned after the punishment he received for helping Sarah to complete my Labyrinth. But I had a strong feeling that he wasn't helping Christina on his judgment, after watching them for a while in my crystal I decided that they did not like each other. I looked down at him, 

"Oh, Hogbrain-" Before I could finish my thought, Christina interrupted, 

"Actually, he doesn't like being called Hogwart even more." I smiled at her, I was really beginning to like her, and that fact that she did not like Hoggle because he disliked like me helped. She smirked at Hoggle, who was apparently fed up with her already. 

"It's Hoggle." He just said, trying to act as though he was not bothered by her teasing. I finished my thought from before, 

"Whatever is the matter?" 

"Nothing." He answered quickly. I was about to ask Christina a question when she burst out at Hoggle, 

"Nothing! Nothing?! Nothing tra la la?" Hoggle's face went totally blank and I was taken slightly aback. Where had she heard that? I had only said that to Sarah, surely it's not a common thing Aboveground. I shook it off and looked at Christina, 

"And you, Christina, how are you enjoying your Labyrinth?" Her face blanched, except for a bit of red that crept into her cheeks. Her deep, brown eyes grew for a second, and it was then, in that moment that I felt the first pang of love in my heart, the first time my heart grew warm again since I had been rejected by Sarah all those years ago. I also noticed that she was having some trouble having to talk to me alone without Jennifer here to save her. 

"Y-Y-Your Labyrinth is really hard so far." I could see right into her mind's eye and I knew she was having an inner struggle with herself not to just fall at a heap at my feet. Then, she did something I was not expecting. She stepped closer and ran a finger down my arm, leaving a path of warmth in its trail. She leaned in closer and and began walking behind me, I could feel her breath on my neck and the scent of her perfume was intoxicating.

"Especially now since I've gotten separated from Jen back in the Oubliette. That was a very," She took a breath, "Cruel trick." I closed my eyes to try and concentrate on just brushing off her words. I knew if I let her get to me I would not be able to resist bringing her back to the castle with me right then and letting her have her wish. I muttered to myself under my breath, hoping she wouldn't hear, 

"No, Jareth, she's trying to seduce you. She can't do this to you now. Oh, It's not fair." I opened my eyes and she was standing right in front of me, her arms placed gently around my neck. I did the best I could to try to keep my breathing at a normal pace, and keep my eyes from showing what I felt inside. She looked right into my eyes, 

"You say that so often I wonder what your basis for comparison is." I smiled at her and I could feel her legs almost give out from underneath her. Now I definitely knew something was up. First calling Hoggle different names, now this is the second time she is quoting me, and surely she doesn't know about my past and with Sarah. A past that I would rather not think about. 

"You've really got to stop doing that." I told her. 

"Sorry," she said, blushing slightly and looking down at her feet, "I'll try." She looked so adorable when she blushed and it was more then I could handle. I had to get out of there before something happened. I transported myself to my chambers and threw myself onto my bed, trying to calm my breathing. It had been so long since the last time I had felt this way about anyone. I had forgotten what it felt like, but now I remembered how good it felt. I materialized a crystal to see what Christina was up to. Something about this girl had caught my attentions and would not let them go…

***__


	4. Battering Rams and New Friends

***

_In the heart of the labyrinth, something stirred. It followed a set of rules set eons ago by Kings long forgotten. Noble and loyal, it adhered to the rules that made up its very being. Without the rules, It would be nothing but immobile stone. It didn't like the fact that the king was beginning to help these girls. Certain things were against the rules. Certain things just weren't done. It wasn't right for He who was in charge to give the contestants help. Certain rules should not be broken._

_ In the heart of the labyrinth, something began to get  angry…_

***

Jen

The hands that had saved me from uncertain death (well I wasn't _completely sure) pulled back sharply, as my rescuer threw his weight backwards to keep us both from going over the edge. This resulted in the two of us in a relatively safe, but graceless heap on the ground. _

This was not all that bad, because my rescuer was, in fact, a good looking guy, who looked about my age, probably a little older. Our faces were about 2 inches apart, and I just kind of stared like an idiot. Near death experiences can do that to a person... I finally caught my breath.

"Th-Thank you!" I stammered, "You saved my life!"

The guy seemed about as flustered as me.

"Uh, I uh… You're welcome!" He said in a creamy, dreamy, English accent, eyes wide. It was about then that I realized I should probably get off of the poor guy. As was already mentioned, I am no featherweight. I carefully disentangled our various limbs and got to my feet. Offering a hand to my savior, I helped him to his feet. As he dusted himself off, I examined him. You can't really get the _whole picture from two inches away. From my new viewpoint I could see several things._

He was lean and tall, wearing a white poet shirt open at the front to show off a trim and muscley chest. It was laced with a thin strip of black suede at the top, and the ends of the tie hung loose. The shirt was tucked into tight black breeches, which in turn were tucked into dark brown pirate boots. From the amount of loose glitter still clinging to these, I guessed he employed the same mode of travel as Jareth. Which explained how he had appeared out of nowhere to help me.

Other things, however, can be seen _quite well from two inches away. For instance, you couldn't tell from this far away that he smelled really good, but he did. He had a fair complexion and chiseled features, the angles of which were softened by his large differently colored eyes, and the marks above them. His eyes were alert and intense, as if he could see right through you. One eye was a deep emerald green, flecked with gold, and the other was a light green-blue with a slivery sheen. The marks were black, and traced his eyes to the end, then swept up to his eyebrows, a lot like Jareth's but still noticeably different. His hair was dark, wavy, and just long enough to pull back into a short ponytail. All in all: ****__Wow! I whistled inwardly. This was a __prime specimen of Guyness. Between him and Jareth, I had to wonder if all the guys down here were this hot. If they were, then…__ 'Holy Stud Overload, Batman!'  _

He straightened up and grinned at me. I grinned back. 

"I'm Jen." I said, extending my hand. To my utter delight, instead of shaking it, he turned it over and kissed it. _'Oh **my…'**_

"I know." He smiled again, this time at my surprise, "Word travels quickly in the Underground." He explained. At this I let out a laugh.

"We're today's entertainment, huh? Should I do a little dance?"

He laughed. 

"You're not as much of a spectacle as you imagine. Nearly no one is watching you." He said. The sound of his voice was definitely swoon-worthy. 

"You obviously were, or you wouldn't have known I was in trouble." I frowned, suddenly suspicious of the guy. Had he been sent to delay me? I hoped not… "Do you have your own crystals, or are you working with Jareth? I mean, I _suppose he's not a bad guy or anything, but in this instance he is __definitely my opponent." _

"I'm _not working with Jareth: he doesn't know I'm here. I came to __help you." He said with passionate sincerity. I decided to take this at face value. He seemed like a nice guy. A nice, __hot guy. __Oh yeah…_

 "Does my mysterious champion have a name?" I asked coyly.

He seemed startled, and then a little embarrassed.

"Pardon me, My Lady Jennifer." He said. _'Ooh, "My Lady", now **that's classy!' I thought. "I hadn't realized my lapse in manners. My name is Kirel." **_

"Just 'Jen' would be fine, Kirel. Now, you wouldn't happen to be able to poof me off to the castle, would you?" I got to the point directly.

He shook his head, though, blushing slightly..

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid my powers aren't strong enough to do that. I can transport myself relatively well, but I've always been miserable at transporting anyone else. It's a source of constant embarrassment." 

I shrugged. I had expected as much, with my luck so far.

"Do you know the way to the castle?" I asked.

"Well, I _think its over- uh, there." Kirel said, pointing into the forest and slightly to the left. "But the whole Labyrinth can shift at any time. It's very, __very magical."_

"Well, then off we go, that-a-way." I mimicked his stance, and started off down the path. Cautious, this time, of dropping rocks. 

***

Stina

"So you really like Jareth do you?" Hoggle asked me as we walked down the stone corridor. I looked at him and blushed slightly. 

"Ya, I guess I am pretty obvious about it. But I really love him, it's not like some little High School crush, I would give my life for this guy. It's pretty bad." _'Especially so, since up until a few hours ago, he was a fictional character...'  We got to the end of the hall where, of course, the gate was locked shut. _

"Help me push this wall over so we can get through. There should be a ladder on the other side." 

"How do you know all these things?" I smirked at him, 

"Magic." We both placed our hands on the wall to try to push it over but it didn't budge. _'Just great, now I'm going to be stuck here with Hogbrain. Ooo! I have an idea.' _

"Hoghead, come here." He glared at me, 

"It's **HOGGLE**, and why?" 

"I've got an idea to get this wall down." He squinted at me but made his way over nonetheless, he probably didn't want to be stuck with me anymore than I wanted to be stuck with him. I picked him up sideways, with his feet to the front. I took a few steps back then ran, slamming his feet into the wall. 

"Y**_EOWWWW_**_! What the hell is wrong with you_?!" Hoggle screamed at me. I put him down and shrugged my shoulders. 

"Hey, it could have worked. It was just an idea." I stood back and looked at the wall trying to think of a new way to get through. I noticed a small piece of the wall missing on one side. I walked over to it and instead of pushing I tried to pull the wall over. A bigger chunk came off and, alas, there was a brick wall behind the one we were trying to knock over. 

"Where the hell did this come from? That is not supposed to be there. Now we are never gonna get through and I am going to be stuck here with you"._ 'JARETH, please, help me, get me out of here I don't want to spend the rest of the time here with Hogbreath.' I dropped to my knees and put my head down, trying to think of a way out of here. We couldn't go back because we would just end up back in the oubliette, and if we did that Hoggle would just end up showing my the way out of the Labyrinth. Suddenly I heard the familiar noise of Jareth's crystals along the stone pathway. I looked up and the ball stopped right in front of me where it turned into a key. My jaw dropped and my eyes grew wide. '_No way, Jen will never believe that Jareth helped me. This is insane. Oh, Jareth, I love you. Thank You so much'_. I grabbed the key and ran over to the locked gates. The key slid perfectly into the lock and it popped open. Hoggle, who hadn't been paying attention looked at me suspiciously, _

"Where'd you get that key?" 

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." 

"Try me." 

"Jareth sent it to me. I asked him for help to get me out of here and he gave it to me. That is why I love him." Hoggle stared at me in disbelief, 

"You're right. I don't believe it." 

"See, I told you. But does anyone ever listen to Christina, nooooo." We continued down the stone corridor until I finally thought, 'W_e are not going to end up in the hedge maze since we did not go up that ladder so now where are we going to end up. And what am I going to do from there? I do not know where I am going anymore. Crap_.' We turned a corner and, nevertheless, at the end of the hallway there was a ladder leading so high up we could not even see a light shining in from above.

 "Thank you Jareth" I ran down the hall at full speed and began shimmying my way up the ladder. After a few minutes I finally reached the top of the ladder and crawled out, plopping myself on the ground, attempting to catch my breath from the strenuous climb. After Hoggle finished climbing up I suddenly became aware of my surroundings. After a few minutes I finally reached the top of the ladder and crawled out, plopping myself on the ground, attempting to catch my breath from the strenuous climb. After Hoggle finished climbing up I became aware of my surroundings. I ended up in the Hedge Maze, even after going up a different ladder. _Thank God_ I thought, _At least I know where I am... kinda_. I stood and dusted my bottom off and we started walking again. After rounding a few corners we came to a small opening that seemed familiar. I looked around and sitting in a stone chair was the Wiseman, and his hat. "Oo, I love this guy. His hat is so funny." I said to no one in particular. 

"Well, don't expect him to be of much help." Hoggle grumbled. 

"Well, you aren't helping me but I still keep you around." He just ignored me and I made my way over to the Wiseman. 

"Excuse me, do you know how do get to the castle in the center of this Labyrinth?" I asked 

"Oh, yes, a young girl-" 

"We seem to have a lot of dem passing through here dese days. Woo woo woo." The Wiseman looked up at the bird then continued as I smiled on 

"So you want to get to the castle in the center of the Labyrinth?" I looked at the man's hat, 

"Heh, how's that for brainpower?" I asked him. 

"Eh, I like dis girl, much more den de last." I smiled at the bird. 

"Hey, could I try your hat on for a second?" I asked the Wiseman 

"Sure." He answered. "You could keep him for all I care." he then mumbled under his breath. I took the hat off of his head and placed it on my own. I swaggered to the left a bit but then regained my balance. 

"Whoa, you're pretty heavy." I said to the bird. I began running around the opening of the maze in circles with the hat.   
Eh, I haven't moved dat fast for a looong time." The bird said when I stopped running. I smiled as I placed him back on the Wiseman's head.

"No no no, I don't want to go back." 

"Sorry." I told him, "But I have to get to that castle and I'm on a tight schedule. I'll come back and visit you sometime." 

"Oh, alright. Please leave a contribution in de little box." 

"I don't have anything of any value to contribute, and I'm not a sucker like that other girl." I smiled at the bird then continued on my way with Hoggle as I heard in the distance a sarcastic voice saying, 

"Oh, it's so stimulating being your hat." 

***

Jareth

The object of my attentions was sitting against the wall, breathing fast. She smiled as I heard her say that things were going great, which in turn made me smile to myself.   
After she caught her breath she began walking with Hoggle again. I enlarged my crystal so I would have a better view of them. 

"So you really like Jareth do you?" Hoggle asked her. I took a deep breath, _'Ok, I'm going to find out for sure now if she really does feel the same way.' I waited in anticipation for her answer,   
"Ya, I guess I am pretty obvious about it. But I really love him, it's not like some little High School crush, I would give my life for this guy. It's pretty bad." I let go of a breath I had unknowingly been holding and fell onto back, grinning from ear to ear. How good it felt to smile again. I let loose a "whoop!" of joy that must have rang through the whole kingdom. I quickly sat up again, Indian style, before I missed anymore of their conversation. _

They had gotten to the end of the corridor where there was a locked gate at one end, and a stone wall behind the other. They were both trying to push down the wall, in the same fashion Sarah had, but had no luck with it. I had made my goblins build a brick wall behind it so that no one would be able to get passed. I don't know how I could have been so foolish to let that slip by me the last time. I put my concentration back on the crystal where I saw Christina pick up Hoggle and go running into the wall, using his feet to try and knock it over. Hoggle screamed in pain and I let loose a roar of laughter. That was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I was in such a fit of hysterics that I had managed to roll off my bed and onto the floor. 

"Ow.." I said as I hit the floor with a thud, between my gasps for air and my still raging giggles. I finally caught my breath and calmed down enough to keep my composure back to normal again. I wiped a tear from my eye when I heard Christina calling out to me through her mind, _'Jareth, please help me' she begged__, 'get me out of here. I don't want to spend the rest of the time stuck here with Hogbreath!' She pleaded and dropped to her knees. I instantly regretted building that wall and I felt absolutely torn apart watching her there, on the verge of tears. There was nothing else I could do but help, If I left her I would never be able to live with myself. _

_'And,' I thought, __'She will see that I'm not always cruel.' I sent a crystal her way and made it stop right in front of her, where it changed into a key, to fit into the lock that kept them from continuing their journey. I watched as her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. I snuck into her thoughts once again, __'No way, Jen will never believe that Jareth helped me. This is insane. Oh Jareth, I love you. Thank you so much.' I smiled, once again content with myself, and continued watching Christina. She opened the gate and Hoggle, asked where she had gotten the key. She told him but he did not believe her anyway. _

_'Oh, Hoggle, dear skeptical Hoggle, just because I don't like you doesn't mean I don't like everybody. And Christina has definitely gotten my attention.' She continued her way through the halls when I heard her thinking, worrying actually, that she would be lost since she was not going up the ladder she had planned on going up. Actually, there hadn't been another ladder there at all, but, since I was in such a carefree mood, I had made a ladder appear before they rounded the next corner. Christina spotted it and dashed for it at full speed. She thanked me for it as she made her way up. I also made sure she would end up in the Hedge Maze, because that's where the other ladder would have led to anyway._

I put the crystal away and just laid back on my bed, thinking to myself, _'Ah, finally, things are going my way!'_

_***_


	5. Long Explanations or I'm talking to a wa...

***  
Jen

Kirel and I walked along the path for quite some time. The path was wide enough for us to walk side by side as we talked. For some reason, I felt as if I had known him for a long time, instead of just for an hour or so. We talked about the weather (which had become warm, resulting in my tying my sweater around my waist), about nature, told each other stories about ourselves. I began to feel at ease talking to Kirel, even though I barely knew him. Eventually though, the conversation turned back to the subject at hand.

"I've only got 9 hours left." I realized, looking at my watch. "Do you know how big this forest is, Kirel?" 

He shook his head.

"It can be as small or as large as Jareth wishes. He's the king, I'm pretty sure he can do what he wants. If he saw you getting to the end, he could set a trap to bring you right back to the beginning, and you'd walk though the forest for weeks, if you fell for it." Kirel said. I grimaced. He continued, trying to make the situation a little less horrible. 

"It all depends on what kind of mood he's in. Lately he's been melancholy more often than not, and he probably wouldn't care enough to do all that. Although seeing me helping you _could make him pretty angry. But at that point it would probably be worse for me than you…" Kirel trailed off thoughtfully._

This unsettled me. It had not occurred to me that Kirel's help might incur the wrath of the one of the most powerful men in this dimension. I didn't think I'd be able to stand it if someone as nice as Kirel had to suffer for my sake. 

"There's no reason for you to stay if he'd hurt you for helping me. You can go, I'll be all right on my own." I said, a little worried. _'I hope'_

Kirel shook his head and smiled reassuringly

"Don't worry your pretty head about me" he said ( and it occurred to me again, that Kirel was the most charming guy I had ever met) "Jareth is probably keeping a closer watch on your friend just now. And as I said, he's usually too depressed to care about trivial things anymore."

This definitely puzzled me. The Jareth I knew from repeated watchings of Labyrinth was arrogant, vibrant, and confident. Depressed and melancholy were not words that came to mind when one thought of the Goblin King. 

"Why is he depressed?" I asked "And why would you be in so much trouble if you helped me?"

 Kirel sighed. It was clear that this would be a long story.

"For the Underground to stay stable, some magic has to escape to the Aboveground. If it became too concentrated, it would get pretty ugly down here. Every spell we cast would become way too intense to deal with. We usually let the magic out Aboveground by transporting Abovegrounders down here, because believe it or not, Abovegrounders actually use magic up like air. We used to get people down here, all the time, back when people still actively believed in fairy tales. Changeling babies were everywhere, back then, and Abovegrounders cast their own spells as often as we cast ours. 

"Then technology and science took over tradition and mythology up there, and we got very few Abovegrounders down here. The magic bottled up made for a lot of trouble. Transportation spells moved whole mountains, whole islands. Dream spells made nightmares real. Simple weather changing spells causes severe floods and draughts. Then one enterprising Fae wrote a book to keep the beliefs in the old legends alive, and sent it Up. It was eventually made into a movie, and we had an influx of Humans.' 

Here Kirel let out a bark of laughter.

"Jareth has never seen the movie. He's so caught up in his self pity and his work to notice a movie based on his love story. I, on the other hand, frequently observe the goings on of the Mortal world. Its quite a good movie too. Fairly accurate… 

"Anyway, for a while, everything was under control. There was enough transit between the two dimensions to allow the magic to be regular again. Some Humans even decided to live down here, which helped a lot. Even when no one was wishing siblings away, we had the resident Abovegrounders to use up excess magic. 

"That was a long time ago, for mortals. They got tired of magic, tired of the underground, tired of never changing. They chose to leave, and live out the rest of their lives Aboveground. Since then, certain Fae have been watching mortals through Jareth's crystals. They pick out the ones who are most likely to adjust to living here, and then they adjust events so that a copy of the book, or the movie fall into their hands. When they end up here, they are made to run the Labyrinth to let them get used to our world, and to our magic, and even if they fail, the King used to give them a choice. They could return home, or stay here. But then Sarah came." Kirel's eyes suddenly took on a shadowed look. He continued.

            "She wasn't the exact Sarah that you know from the movie, but she was very much like her. Jareth fell in love with Sarah. He had watched her for months and became infatuated with her. It's rather a common scenario for a crystal watcher to fall in love like that. The object of his observation becomes the object of his affections." Kirel smiled at this, so I smiled back. 

"When she finally said the words, Jareth saw his chance. He tried incredibly hard to be the man he thought she wanted him to be, but she rejected him anyway. She returned to the surface. She's married now, with kids, too. She's convinced herself that the Labyrinth was a dream…" Kirel shook his head, and rolled his eyes.

            "Some people," he said "simply cannot believe in magic, even when they see it in front of them! Since then… " He sighed. "Her rejection nearly destroyed Jareth. Since then we've had nearly no one come through. The Goblin King has the power to deny mortals entrance to his kingdom, and with Jareth's bad mood, he tends not to let many people through and the magic has begun to build up again… Even the goblins can feel it. Everyone has begun to get edgy, and that puts Jareth in a worse mood. So you see, that is why Jareth is depressed, and the reason he does not want anyone to help you is because he wants –needs- you to stay here to control the magic. If you lose, he has a legitimate reason to keep you. And in this mood, under these conditions…" Kirel stopped for a second and turned to me. His eyes met mine.

            "Jennifer, I don't know if he'll let you go home even if you _do win…" He said apologetically._

            My eyes widened and I gasped involuntarily. I almost exclaimed "That's not Fair!" but I stopped myself. I knew it wouldn't help. I took a deep breath. This wasn't what I had expected. _'And what did you expect?' a little voice inside me asked. __'Did you think you'd just waltz in and out again, happily ever after? That's naïve and stupid.'_

And it was, I realized. Time to face this like a grownup and not a little girl. I took a deep breath. 

            "Well if that's the case, we had better hurry up. The faster we get there, the harder it will be to prove that he can keep us." I said determinedly. Kirel looked as if he was going to say something else, but just nodded and started walking again. I was glad he understood. He knew I knew I'd probably be stuck in the Underground forever, but I couldn't just give up.

We followed the path till it came up to a very large gray stone wall. Right in front of us, there was an intricately carved circle that reminded me of a Celtic knot. It was about three feet in diameter, and there was something written in the middle. I walked closer and read it out loud.

_"Round she is,_

_Yet flat as a board_

_Altar of the Lupine Lords.___

_Jewel on black velvet,_

_Pearl__ of the sea_

_Unchanged but e'er-changing,_

_Eternally.___

"I think its some kind of riddle." I told Kirel. He nodded his agreement.

"It's just the kind of thing Jareth would use to seal a doorway." He said. He stepped closer to me to trace the outline of the circle with a finger. It seemed he and Jareth shared the talent of interfering with rational thought by way of proximity (and very good cologne). "It's a portal, I think." This seemed feasible to me.

"Do you know the answer?" He asked, turning his head to mine. This, by the way, brought our faces once again within a foot of each other. I blinked.

"I… think so." I said uncertainly. Kirel gestured to the circle.

"Go tell it."

I made a face and laughed as I moved to face the wall again.

"I'm talking to a wall, and half expecting an answer: Now I know I'm not in Kansas anymore!" I said. Looking straight at the center of the circle I said in a loud clear voice

"The answer is: The Moon." 

Suddenly, the circle began to glow. The whole circle began to radiate a soft silver light.

"Kirel, what's happening?" I asked, worried. He just shook his head and pointed. Just as suddenly, the light faded, and so did the stone inside the circle!

"You guessed right!" Kirel said, grinning happily. "That was moonlight!"

It made sense. Well, as much sense as could be made in a place where a David Bowie look-alike ruled supreme, using magic to control small strange creatures…

"After you, milady." Kirel said, gesturing to the open portal. I grinned back and stepped through, carefully, and he followed. It led into a narrow passageway with no ceiling, and another circle of stone about 10 feet away. Kirel read the second circle out loud.  

_"Solid or soft_

_When cold or warm_

_In calm seas_

_Or in the storm_

_Too little and life leaks away_

_Too much and life can never stay"  We stared at this for a bit. __'Okay Jen' I thought to myself __'What is...lessee:  in the sea, and in storms, and can be solid or soft?' Then the answer came to me. It was painfully easy, when one thought about it. Kirel thought of it at the same time as me, and we said in unison_

"Water!"

This resulted in our both being hit full in the face by a couple of gallons of good old H2O. 

I was not pleased. I was soaked from my chest up. Spluttering, glaring, and dripping, I kicked the wall resentfully.

"I hate you." I told it. A small squirt of water hit me square in the face. Apparently, the walls _could answer. I hung my head and sighed, trying to resist the urge to kick the wall again. I became aware of a muffled sound from where Kirel was standing. I looked up through a curtain of wet hair to see him trying to conceal a smile, shoulders shaking. He was laughing at me! Then I replayed the last few minutes in my mind and realized how funny I must have looked. I tried not to smile, but another look at Kirel did me in. His hair had all shifted to one side, and as he wiped a hand over his face his eyebrows stuck in all different directions. I probably looked much worse. I began to giggle, then chuckle as Kirel joined in. We both stood there laughing for a good minute before we regained our breath. I gestured to Kirel to fix his eyebrows and we both started laughing all over again as he messed them up twice. When both of us composed ourselves, we climbed through the hole to see a hallway identical to the one we had just climbed out of. _

We read the next riddle together. 

_ "The sweetest sadness and the softest pain_

_The reason for eternal life's refrain_

_Tis' greater than the sea and earth and sky_

_Tis' old as life, though it will never die"  _

I was completely blank. I was usually quite good at solving riddles and mazes and such, but this time I was totally baffled. This, as you might imagine, really pissed me off. Luckily, Kirel was there to rescue me again.

"I know it." He said softly. "I feel it everyday." I wasn't sure I was supposed to hear that last, it was so quiet. This puzzled me. 

He faced the stone barrier. 

"Unrequited love." He said. 

_'Oh. Kirel's in love,' I thought regretfully '__Well, there go my chances with him…As if I really had a chance to begin with…'_

The stone circle began to glow. Not the same as the first one: this was red, and somehow _sparkly. Warmth began to pulse off of it, which felt great on my wet skin and hair, and helped to dry it off a bit. Then the redness began to fade, but just before the light went away, I felt a pang in my chest. I took a breath sharply, and heard Kirel do the same. My heart filled with a fluttery ache, painful and at the same time wonderful. __'Unrequited Love', I realized. __'The first door gave off  moonlight, the second gave water. The third door gave off  love.' I knew the feeling well, and hated it. I had had my share of it in the past. I had never had any real luck in love._

Then the feeling began to dissipate. I took a deep breath, and turned to Kirel, only to realize he was already looking at me. I smiled at him.

"Shall we then?" I asked. He smiled back, but he seemed… I wasn't sure, sad maybe, troubled… 

"Are you alright?" I asked. He nodded, and I decided to leave it at that. We stepped through the opening, and found ourselves in the Garden Maze. Tall bushes and sandstone walls were everywhere.

_'At least were getting closer.' I thought. __'At least were getting slightly__ closer, anyway…'_

Kirel and I wandered through the garden maze for only a short while before suddenly he stopped. He cocked his head as if listening to something. I myself couldn't hear a thing, but I waited silently. He turned to me then.

            "Jennifer, your friend is nearby." My eyes widened in surprised relief.

            "Thank god! I was worried-" Kirel cut me off with a raised hand.

            "Jareth is watching her. I've got to leave before he sees me with you." My face fell, and I immediately began to worry about Kirel's safety. Kirel's fretful expression mirrored my own, I was somewhat glad to see.

"That's not all." He continued. "He's taken more than a casual interest in her, more than even she knows. You can't tell her about me. Jareth may hear her thoughts, and I don't know what we'll do then…" I didn't like holding information back from my friend, but I didn't want Kirel to be hurt.

"I won't say anything. I promise." I told him. He grinned at me again, and I felt a twinge in my heart. I really hoped this wasn't the last time I'd see that grin. 

"I'll come back if I can, be sure of it." He said "Farewell, my lady." He said. 

Then he just stood there. I was a little confused, until a silvery shimmer began to form in the air around his body. It swirled around him, and coruscated brighter and brighter till I could barely see his outline anymore, and then it…_blurred. Suddenly the shimmer shrank and faded, and flapping its wings above the spot where Kirel had been was a majestic looking falcon! This surprised me for a total of about 5 seconds. It really wasn't all __that remarkable considering all the other things that had been happening today… I raised a hand in farewell as the falcon soared into the sky and out of sight. When he had faded into the blue, I began to hear voices. I shrugged my sweater over my cold shoulders and headed towards them, calling out, anxious to see Stina again._

***


	6. Jareth's Angst or There's something in t...

***

Jareth

"Alright." I said swirling around, my cape dusting the floor as I paced back and forth in front of my throne. "If need to find a way..." I said to myself, trailing off at the end of my sentence as I materialized another crystal and continued pacing. I watched as Christina continued her journey through my Labyrinth. All the goblins became quiet and stopped what they were doing to also peer into my crystal, but a few of them lost intrest quickly and went back to what they were doing. "I can't think of anything!" I exclaimed as I kicked the nearest, unfortunate goblin across the room. 

"We should be alone, that'd be best. Then I can talk to her..." I said trailing off again. 

"Um, Excuse me, your Majesty," I heard a tiny little voice say. I quickly put my crystal away and turned to see my handmaiden Soryu, a petite female goblin, standing at my feet.

"What is it?" I asked her, frustrated from being drawn my away from my thoughts.

"Well, you could always have a ball. That way you can invite a bunch of people and sneak away with your Lady." I stared down at her and she seemed to shrink under my gaze. "Sorry, your Majesty, it was just a suggestion." and she scurried away. '_A ball..._' I thought as I began pacing again. Could I do that_?_ I thought back to the ball I had thrown for...her, for Sarah, when she was whisked away to my Labyrinth. '_No I can't do it._' All different memories of Sarah came flooding back, I was so close... then she just turned and left me like that. '_Should I? I don't have much other choice. **I** obviously can't think of anything._' I kicked another tiny goblin across the room in my frustration. Too many thoughts and feelings were swirling around my head and I couldn't take it. I threw myself down into my throne and rested my hand in my hands as I tried to sort everything out. I could already feel a headache coming on and quickly rose out of my throne again and rushed to my chambers. I slammed the door behind me and sat on the edge of my bed. The sky outside turned gray and I all that kept going around in my head was her name Sarah...Sarah...and all different memories I had of her. I got up again and tore across the room. I'd have to decide what to do about a ball for Christina some other time. I picked one of the flasks up off my table and quickly downed some of the liquid. I bent over in agony and held my head as a burning pain burst in it. Then, slowly, the pain diminished and I stood upright again.   
"God that hurts." At least the headache was gone now, but everything else still swirling in my mind. '_Damn it. I guess I'll have to drink more next time_.' I thought sarcastically. I had to have a ball, it was the only thing left for me to do, but I couldn't think about all the details. Not now with my head spinning like this. I quickly transformed into an owl and soared out of my window and over the Labyrinth to try and clear my head. I spotted Christina and silently swooped down to a ledge to watch. She continued on and didn't even notice my presence. Once she was out of sight I took off again to think about what I was going to do.

***

Stina

  
"Alright, for the thousandth time, which way did you and Sarah go to reach the door knocker?"   
"What about door knockers?"   
"Agh! I'm going to kill you!" I said, totally fed up with Hoggle, my hands making a beeline for his neck. His eyes grew wide, but I was suddenly stopped from my mission to kill when I heard someone call out my name.   
"Stina?" I looked down at Hoggle,   
"Listen!" I said excitedly, "It's Jen!"   
"Stina? Where are you?"   
"I'm over here!" I called out.   
"Oh, that's a big help." she replied.   
"Hoghead come here." He folded his arms and looked at me like, 'you've got to be kidding.' "No, I'm not gonna do anything, Just come here."   
"Uh-uh, I learned my lesson the first time."   
"I just want to lift you up to see if you can spot Jen so she can get over here." he looked at me, still skeptical, but then made his way over. "Thank You. Geez." I put my hands together in the same fashion Jen had showed me earlier. "Here, Step up." I boosted Hoggle up so he could be seen above the hedges. "Call her name." I told him.   
"Jen! Over here!"   
"Ah, There you are." After a few wrong twists and turns, and Hoggle trying to tell her how to get to us while constantly confusing left and right, she made her way over to us.   
"Jen!" I exclaimed, forgetting about Hoggle and throwing my arms around Jen.   
"Huh! Stina...can't...breathe..."   
"Oh, sorry." I said loosening my bear-like grip on her. "I was getting so worried, I had no idea where you were!"   
"Um, I think you forgot abut someone." She said pointing over my shoulder. I turned to see Hoggle sprawled on the ground. I tried my best to hold in a laugh.   
"Oops, Sorry Hogsby."   
"Yeah, sure. Just help me up." I walked over to him and held his hands to pull him up off the ground. It took a lot more effort on my part however, because Hoggle was acting like a deadweight. With a sudden burst of energy I finally got him up and we almost went flying into the hedge behind us. I walked over to Jen so we could start out again to find the door knockers.   
"Hogface and I have not been getting along well at all." I informed Jen, while glaring back at Hoggle. "He has been nothing but a royal pain in the arse this entire time. And I'm pretty sure that is not what Jareth told him to be."   
"Yeah, well she almost smashed my legs into a million pieces." He interjected.   
"Oh, I did not, get over it. And you had that stupid limp anyway. Who knows? Maybe I fixed it? Hmph, I should call you Gimpy from now on." I looked over at Jen,   
"Are you ok? You're being irregularly quiet. You kinda seem out of it."   
"Yeah, I'm fine." she answered. "Just kind of uh, tired. And a bit damp."   
"Where did you go?"   
"I ended up in some enchanted forest. First I had to get across these stepping stones where some fell and some did not so I had to check each one out before jumping to the next one so I wouldn't fall into oblivion. I almost didn't make but, I'm here. Then, in order to get out of the forest I had to answer three riddles."   
"Oo, I hate riddles."   
"The first two were easy but the last one was hard. Kir- uh, kinda got me annoyed. But I got it." she quickly finished.   
"Yeah you know what happened to me? First I almost died because I had to talk to Jareth without you there to help me."   
"Yeah," Hoggle cut in, "Talk about seducing someone. She was all over him." I blushed slightly and Jen looked at me with an expression of partial disbelief and partial disapproval.   
"What? It worked...because what happened next is...you know that scene in the movie with the Cleaners? Well, we were stuck there because the gate was locked and a brick wall was built behind the one Sarah had knocked over. So I was stuck with him - and was getting quite upset so I called out to Jareth to help me and he sent me one of his crystals that turned into a key to open the gate. It was insane."   
"Wow." Jen said, apparently astounded. "He would never do that for anyone else."   
"Yeah, Hoghead still doesn't believe me." I stuck my tongue out at him for the twentieth time that day.   
"You just better watch out." Jen warned me, "I definitely think Jareth has taken more than a casual interest in you." I looked down and smiled to myself,   
"You really think so?"   
"Yeah, he hasn't come to visit me once, and here you are, with him practically dragging you back to his 'royal chambers'."   
"Haha! That's the next step."   
"Oh, that's disgusting! Ew! Mental image!" I whirled around, teeth clenched and glared at Hoggle. 'Uh-oh' I heard Jen say in the background.   
"Just because no one would ever like a repulsive little scab like you doesn't mean you need to act like that about other people's success in relationships. Thank You. Have a nice day."   
"Uh...I...uh...um...just..."   
"What? What?" He continued to gape at me, "Yeah. That's what I thought."   
"You two are worse then my younger siblings." Jen cut in.   
"Yeah, but I love arguing. Thinking of nasty comebacks on the spur of the moment. I've gotten quite good at it."   
"Sometimes, I wonder about you..."   
"Hey look!" I exclaimed "The Door Knockers! Ha! I told you I'd find them." I stuck my tongue out at Hoggle again. Jen walked up and began examining each of the stone creatures nailed to the doors.   
"Boy," she said under her breath, "Those are really nice knockers."   
"Oh, vell sank you." I said in a Swedish accent. Jen spun around and just looked at me. "Sorry I couldn't help it. It was the perfect opportunity." {AN: We don't own anything from Young Frankenstein either. Oh well.}  She let out a small laugh, shook her head and turned back around.   
"It's very rude to stare!" The creature on the left spoke out.   
"I know, I know." Jen sighed   
"What? Speak up! Can't hear you!"   
"It's no use. He can't hear for beans." A muffled voice said from behind us. 'hehe' I thought 'lets see' I walked over to the door knocker with the ring in his ears.   
"CAN YOU HEAR ME?" I shouted into his ear.   
"Ah, Finally, Someone that doesn't mumble." Jen laughed at this since I usually speak very quiet and mumble...a lot.   
"WOULD YOU MIND IF I KNOCKED ON THIS DOOR?"   
"Of course not. That's what I'm here for."   
"Why do you want to pick that door? We won't know where we are again."   
"Because, if I have to go into those woods, and the Fire Gang jumps out and starts singing and trying to rip my head off someone will get hurt. Badly."   
"Right..." Jen said, remembering my quick temper, and my skills in karate. "This door it is then." I grabbed the ring knocked on the door three times. It slowly opened and the three of us made our way through. It shut behind us with a loud BAM! That caused Jen to jump. We looked around to try and figure out where we were. We appeared to be in the middle of a marketplace, everywhere tents were set up with little stalls being run by all different types of fairy tale creatures. Elves, Goblins, Faes, Faeries, Trolls, Gnomes and any other creature imaginable. A little goblin ran up in front of us with a tray with four different fruits on it. A nectarine, a peach, a plum, and a banana. I looked over at Jen,   
"Where did the banana come from? Hehe...one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong..." I started singing. She just shook her head.   
"Here, try one of my delicious fresh fruits. You two lovely ladies may each try something for free, then you can decide if you want to purchase any more."   
"Well, knowing the history of peaches around here, I'll stick with the plum. It seems safe enough." Jen said as she reached over to grab it. She then looked over at me, while I was hungrily eyeing the peach. "Stina _don't even." I quickly reached out and snatched the peach from the tray. "Oh, it's useless." I heard Jen say as I took a bite out of it. Everything began to spin and I looked over to get one last look at Jen, who had just taken a bite out of her plum, before I felt the ground lurch from beneath my feet and everything faded away. _

  
* * *


End file.
